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Machine Learning Engineer

claylabs

Híbrido San Francisco
AI

Job Score

90 pts
Hybrid model (+80) AI (+10)

About Clay

Our mission is to help organizations turn any growth idea into reality.

We see growth as a creative practice, not a formula. Finding and reaching your best-fit customers takes unique ideas and constant iteration. As AI makes execution faster and tactics easier to copy, creativity is the only lasting advantage. We're already helping thousands of customers — including Anthropic, Notion, Google, and Ramp — go to market with unique data, signals, and AI research.

In 2025, we raised a $100M Series C backed by world-class investors including Sequoia, CapitalG, and First Round — and crossed $100M in revenue.

In 2026, we announced our second employee tender offer in 9 months at a new $5B valuation. We also launched a community equity round, for our customers, agency partners, and club members.

Some things to know about us:

  • Our community includes 11,000+ customers, 150+ integration partners, 125+ agencies, 50+ Clay clubs, and 30k members on Slack.

  • Our culture is unique inside and outside of work. Our team members are also DJs, activists, writers, clowns, marathoners, skydivers, psychedelic therapists, social workers, and more.

  • All employees can work for free with world-class coaches who specialize in creativity, management, and more.

  • Our operating principles — including negative maintenance and non-attached action — guide our work. Read more about them here.

  • Read about us in the NYT, Forbes, First Round Review, and more.

Hear from our employees directly on our Glassdoor page!

Machine Learning Engineer @ Clay

Clay's ambition is to build a self-learning revenue engine: a product that gets smarter every time someone uses it. This means data, ML, and AI are at the heart of everything we are building. We're looking for a Machine Learning Engineer to join the Learning Team: a centralized group of MLEs and data scientists whose charter is building the intelligence engine that powers learning loops across every surface of the product.

You'll ship intelligence features at the heart of the product: systems that learn a customer's business from their data and behavior, ranking and recommendation experiences, net new 0 to 1 AI products, and the ML platform that makes all of it possible.

What You'll Do

Build learning loops into the product

Design and ship systems that allow Clay to learn and improve using user behavior and important business data. Build net-new recommendation-first experiences, from prototype through production.

Build the ML and data platform

Help stand up the infrastructure that underpins learning including data lake foundations and serving infrastructure. Evaluate new tools for their ability to accelerate our product vision. Collaborate with our data science and data platform teams to ensure we’re all using a common data language.

Make quality measurable

Build eval systems and online monitoring so learning features are trustworthy and ensure they are actually positively impacting users’ experience of Clay.

Work across product teams

The Learning Team maintains one shared roadmap serving all product teams; you'll partner with almost every product team at Clay to make their surfaces smarter.

What You'll Bring

5+ years in machine learning engineering or ML-heavy software engineering, with models and ML-powered features shipped to production

Strong engineering fundamentals: you write production-quality code and own systems

Experience with LLMs in production (prompting, evals, guardrails, fine-tuning) and/or classical ML (ranking, recommendations, propensity models)

Experience building data-intensive systems: pipelines, feature infrastructure, retrieval, serving

Pragmatic product sense — you optimize for the end user experience and business impact, and know when simple beats sophisticated

Comfort with ambiguity — much of this platform is being built from the ground up

A passion for the AI space: you stay up-to-date on the latest innovations and tools, and are excited to be at the frontier

Nice To Haves

Experience building recommendation systems, search ranking, or personalization

Experience designing eval frameworks for LLM or ML systems

Familiarity with modern data stack tools (Snowflake, dbt, Dagster) and data lake architectures

Experience in fast-moving startup environments

Why Clay

This is a rare greenfield: the Learning Team is new, its charter comes straight from company leadership, and learning loops are central to Clay's product vision. You'll define the architecture, set the standards, collaborate on the product vision, and ship the features that make Clay feel like it truly knows every customer. We value ownership, clear thinking, and work that has real impact.

About Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence is currently the fastest-growing field in the technology market. The revolution in generative models (GPT, Claude, Gemini) has created massive demand for AI-specialized professionals.

Key areas of practice include Machine Learning Engineering, MLOps, Prompt Engineering, AI Research, and Applied AI. Python, TensorFlow, PyTorch, and LLM knowledge are essential skills.

AI salaries are the highest in the technology sector, with many remote work opportunities at international companies.

Discover Other Areas

Understand the scope of work, key skills, and tools used in different career areas.

About Audiovisual

The Audiovisual area is responsible for producing, editing, and creating video and audio content for various platforms. With the exponential growth of digital content, audiovisual professionals are fundamental for brands that want to communicate visually and impactfully.

Key skills include video production and editing (Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut), motion graphics (After Effects), animation (Blender, Cinema 4D), sound design, podcast production, live streaming (OBS Studio), and photography. Knowledge of visual storytelling, rhythm, and art direction is a differentiator.

Audiovisual professionals in technology companies are highly valued, especially those who master motion graphics, social media videos, and content for digital platforms. The field offers opportunities from videomaker to head of audiovisual, with a focus on creativity, technical quality, and storytelling.

About Public Relations

The Public Relations (PR) area focuses on managing the reputation, image, and communication of an organization with its various stakeholders (such as clients, investors, employees, media, and the community). PR professionals develop corporate communication strategies, manage media relations (press relations), organize institutional events, and work in image crisis prevention and management.

About Ecommerce Manager

The Ecommerce Manager is the professional responsible for the entire strategic and operational management of online stores and marketplaces. They lead teams, define pricing, promotion, and catalog strategies, and monitor online sales performance across multiple platforms.

Key skills include catalog management, dynamic pricing, seasonal campaigns (Black Friday, Cyber Monday), marketplace management (Amazon, Mercado Livre, Shopee, Magalu), paid traffic, CRO, and team management. Knowledge of Shopify, VTEX, WooCommerce, Google Ads, Meta Ads, and performance metrics is a differentiator.

Ecommerce Managers in technology companies are highly valued, especially those who master multi-marketplace management, checkout optimization, and mobile commerce strategies. The field offers opportunities from ecommerce manager to head of ecommerce, with a focus on revenue, customer experience, and growth.

About Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence (BI) is the area responsible for transforming raw data into strategic information for decision-making. BI professionals build dashboards, reports, and analyses that help companies understand their performance and identify growth opportunities.

Key skills include data modeling (star schema, snowflake), ETL (extraction, transformation, loading), advanced SQL, BI tools (Power BI, Tableau, Looker), data warehousing, KPIs, and business metrics analysis (MRR, churn, cohort). Knowledge of dbt, Airflow, and data pipelines is a differentiator.

BI professionals in technology companies are highly valued, especially those who master data visualization, analytics engineering, and can translate complex data into actionable insights for the business. The field offers opportunities from BI analyst to head of data, with a focus on data-driven decision making.

About Ecommerce Analyst

The Ecommerce Analyst is the professional responsible for analyzing online sales data, buyer behavior, and virtual store performance to guide strategic decisions. They combine data analysis with ecommerce knowledge to optimize conversion, average order value, and return on investment.

Key skills include Google Analytics (GA4), Hotjar, conversion funnel analysis, cohort analysis, customer segmentation, pricing analysis, and ecommerce metrics (CAC, CLV, AOV, conversion rate). Knowledge of SQL, Power BI, Google Tag Manager, and platforms like Shopify and VTEX is a differentiator.

Ecommerce Analysts in technology companies are highly valued, especially those who can turn buyer behavior data into actionable insights to increase revenue and reduce cart abandonment. The field offers opportunities from junior analyst to ecommerce analytics manager.

Career Guides

Technology Career Guide

Planning, skills, interviews, and professional growth in IT, Data Science, DevOps, and Product.

Read full guide →

Design Career Guide

UX/UI, Graphic Design, Product Design. Portfolio, tools, interviews, and growth in the Design field.

Read full guide →

Marketing Career Guide

SEO, Paid Media, Growth, Content Marketing. Certifications, tools, and strategies to grow in Digital Marketing.

Read full guide →

Finance Career Guide

Financial market, investments, corporate finance, certifications, and strategies to grow in the financial field.

Read full guide →

Communication Career Guide

Journalism, PR, Corporate Communication, Content Marketing, and Multimedia Production.

Read full guide →

Administration Career Guide

Business Management, HR, Logistics, Consulting, Project Management, and Entrepreneurship.

Read full guide →

Data Career Guide

Data Science, Data Engineering, BI, Machine Learning, and AI. From training to the job market.

Read full guide →

Product Career Guide

Product Management, Product Ownership, Agile, Scrum, and OKRs. From strategy to execution.

Read full guide →

Tech & Remote Glossary

Stop getting lost in interviews and job descriptions

The job market, especially within tech and global companies, has developed its own dialect. Not understanding these acronyms can make you lose valuable opportunities or poorly negotiate your contract. To end this problem, we created the Definitive Glossary for the Remote Professional.

🏢 Work Models & Routine

Async (Asynchronous Work)
A communication model where responses don't need to be immediate. Instead of back-to-back meetings, the team relies on well-structured documents, threads, and messages. It's the gold standard for global companies spanning multiple time zones.
Sync (Synchronous Work)
The opposite of Async. It requires the team to be online and available at the same time for meetings, live chats, and real-time collaboration.
Daily / Stand-up
A quick daily meeting (usually 15 minutes) common in Agile (Scrum) methodologies. The team answers three questions: What did I do yesterday? What will I do today? Are there any blockers?
All-Hands / Town Hall
A company-wide meeting involving all employees. Usually led by the founders (C-Levels) to present results, new goals, and answer team questions.
1:1 (One-on-One)
A recurring individual meeting between a professional and their direct manager. It is used for career alignment, feedback, and problem-solving, not just for project status updates.

💰 Contracts, Benefits & Compensation

PTO (Paid Time Off)
Instead of strict, categorized leave policies, modern US companies usually offer a flexible pool of days (e.g., 20 days of PTO, or even "Unlimited PTO") that you can use for vacations, sick days, or personal matters, while receiving your regular compensation.
Equity / Stock Options
Company ownership. The startup offers you the right to buy shares at a heavily discounted strike price in the future. If the company grows, goes public, or is acquired, these shares can be highly lucrative.
Vesting (Vesting Schedule)
The rule that controls your Equity. It usually lasts 4 years. You don't get all the shares on day one; you "earn" them gradually as you stay with the company. A "1-year Cliff" means you must stay for at least one year to receive your first batch of shares.
RSUs (Restricted Stock Units)
Unlike Stock Options (where you have the right to buy the stock), RSUs are actual shares the company grants you as a bonus or part of your compensation package, following a strict Vesting schedule.
Independent Contractor (1099 / B2B)
The most common international hiring model for global talent working for US companies. You act as a service provider (business-to-business), receiving the gross salary (often six-figure compensation) without standard local payroll tax deductions at the source.

🤖 Recruitment & Hiring Process

ATS (Applicant Tracking System)
The "robot" that reads your resume. Software like Greenhouse, Ashby, and Workday are used to filter candidates by keywords before a human even looks at the document. (Pro tip: this is why your resume must be clean, semantic, and have the right keywords).
JD (Job Description)
The document that lists the responsibilities, technical requirements, and benefits of the open position.
Cultural Fit
The interview stage that evaluates if your core values, communication style, and worldview align with the company's culture. This is the ultimate test of your Soft Skills.
Onboarding
The integration process. It's the period of your first few weeks at the company, where you get your access credentials, learn about the culture, study the internal documentation, and understand how the product works.

🚀 How to use this to your advantage?

The secret isn't just knowing what these acronyms mean, but using them actively. If during an interview for a premium tech role you ask, "How does your PTO policy and Vesting schedule work?", the recruiter will immediately perceive you as a high-level professional, familiar with the global market standards.

The remote job market requires preparation. And having the right vocabulary is the first big step to securing six-figure proposals and standing out among thousands of applicants.

Expert Tip

Landing Top-Tier Traffic Analyst and SEO Roles

The New Era of Performance Marketing

The digital marketing landscape has undergone a radical transformation in recent years. The era of the "button pusher" who merely launched Meta Ads campaigns or stuffed keywords into WordPress is officially over. Today, companies—especially top-tier US startups and global tech corporations offering six-figure compensations—are looking for analytical, Growth-focused, and highly Data-Driven professionals.

Whether managing multi-million dollar paid media budgets or optimizing site architecture for the new AI-driven search engines, the Traffic and SEO Analyst has become the engine of predictable revenue for tech companies worldwide.

1. Technical SEO and the AI Revolution (SGE)

With Google's introduction of the Search Generative Experience (SGE), SEO is no longer just about backlinks and search volume. It now requires a deep understanding of search intent and topical authority.

What Tech Recruiters are looking for:

  • Technical SEO Mastery: The ability to analyze Core Web Vitals, manage Crawl Budgets, and optimize JavaScript rendering (a critical factor for modern frameworks like React and Next.js).
  • Advanced Data Analysis: Fluency in enterprise tools such as Screaming Frog, Semrush, Ahrefs, and Google Search Console.
  • Focus on E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Understanding how to structure content so that Google's algorithm recognizes it as a reliable primary source.
"Modern SEO success requires you to stop optimizing for algorithms and start optimizing for the user journey, using technical data to remove any friction along the way." — Google Search Central Guidelines

2. Paid Traffic: From Operational to Strategic

In the realm of paid media (Google Ads, Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ads, TikTok Ads), platform automation handles most of the bidding work (Smart Bidding). The modern candidate's competitive edge lies in acquisition strategy and financial viability analysis.

Metrics you must master for your interviews:

  1. CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost): Moving beyond Cost Per Click (CPC). Understanding exactly how much it costs to acquire a paying user.
  2. LTV (Lifetime Value): Knowing how to cross-reference acquisition costs with the value a customer brings to the company over time (LTV:CAC ratio).
  3. ROAS vs. ROI: Grasping the crucial difference between the direct return on ad spend (ROAS) and the actual return on investment for the entire business (ROI).
  4. Server-Side Tracking: With the deprecation of third-party cookies, mastering the Conversions API and Google Tag Manager (GTM) Server-Side is a massive senior requirement.

3. Building an Unbeatable Portfolio

In the global remote market, degrees matter far less than proven results. Your portfolio shouldn't just be a resume; it should be a comprehensive document of Case Studies.

Structure your cases using the STAR method:

  • Situation: What was the baseline? E.g., "The e-commerce brand was burning $10k/month with a 1.2 ROAS."
  • Task: What was the goal? E.g., "Reduce CPA by 30% and increase non-branded organic traffic."
  • Action: What did YOU do technically? E.g., "Audited GTM, restructured PMax campaigns, and applied Schema markup in the HTML."
  • Result: The numerical impact. E.g., "Scaled ROAS to 3.8 and grew organic traffic by 45% in 3 months."

4. Certifications That Actually Open Doors

If you want to bypass strict Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) like Greenhouse or Workday, ensure your LinkedIn and resume feature official certifications issued by the tech platforms themselves:

References and Must-Reads

To stay relevant in a market that changes weekly, we highly recommend following these official sources:

  1. Official Google Search Central Documentation.
  2. Annual State of Marketing Reports from HubSpot and Semrush.
  3. Technical articles focused on Data-Driven Marketing from the Harvard Business Review.

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